How about something bright?.............

Looking for a little brightness to sew, I went to the box of pieces and parts for 3" finished units.  There were lots of quarter square triangles and squares already cut from scraps.  I found enough matching to make 8 new blocks.

I had a stack of the Ohio Star blocks from previous sewing sessions and put them all up on the design wall.

Maybe they need a little space between them.  They might all end up in the orphan block box but I'm having fun and isn't that what it's all about?

I found some tomatoes that taste almost as good as the ones fresh from the garden.  I bought these all winter last year and I was happy to find them again.

More of the same...............

As much as I like these neutral batiks I'm ready to move on to some color.  Just a couple more days......  I sewed some more little blocks and I will  need to find 3 new fabrics to match up with the single stacks on the bottom left.  There wasn't enough contrast with the pairings I had chosen. 

I'm going to go with layout 3 from yesterday's post.  I will be able to just sew 4 randomly chosen blocks into a larger block and then one last layout on the design wall and get it done.  I'm so happy to empty that project box that has been sitting for several years and I know I will like the finished quilt top.

I had intended to get to the longarm but instead called my cable company and worked with a rep for about an hour to get my bill reduced.  Success.  Then I decided I needed go to W*lm*rt to get some fresh produce.  I paid $9.99 for a package of 3 Romaine hearts at my local store.  It was under $4 on this trip.  I support my local family owned grocery 90% of the time but this was one time I couldn't. 

It's funny some of the things I never noticed before, like any month that starts with the 1st on Sunday will have a Friday the 13th.   

Sidetrack........

I got a call yesterday that someone was driving 6 hours to see my great-grandchildren today so I had to drop everything and do some baking to send with them.  That took most of the day.  Last night I decided to just play with the triangle squares that I had already sewn and see if I could come up with a layout.  First was zig zag with matching  blocks next to each other.  No...I don't like this one.

Staying with the zig zag idea, I mixed up the fabrics on the left side.  That's better.

Then I tried this layout which I like the best of the 3.  I think all of the blocks will come off the design wall until I get the rest of them sewn.  

Today I will go down to the longarm which is what I had planned to do yesterday.  I'm feeling confident that it is going to work fine.

 

First quilt top of 2023.............

The iron finally got turned on.  I don't know what my hang up is but I always procrastinate until I have a pile to press.  This top is finished at 45" x 54".  I just love this one.  The simple 9 patch wins again.  I read that 9 patch should be your first block when you are learning to piece blocks.  My first block was 8 point star with Y seams and I created it by machine.  Then I read that block should only be sewn by hand.  I just wasn't following the rules and now 65+ years later I'm having fun with 9 patch.  

Juliana asked in a comment yesterday:

I noted that you said that you don't have nesting seams everywhere in this quilt. Could you show the back and explain what you do in those cases? I just had that problem and I would love to know what an expert quilter does.
Thank you.

 Look where one block meets the next, the seams are going to same direction, not nesting.  I just matched the beginning and end of the blocks and if they were the same length, I just sewed the seam (no pins).  If they hadn't been the same length I would have peeled back the top layer and matched the seams as best I could and stretch or ease to make the blocks line up with each other.  I spent quality time sewing the 9 patches slowly for good accuracy on this quilt.  

I spent some time preparing this quilt for quilting.  I pieced the back and pressed it and then loaded it on the longarm.

I also was going through all of my leftover pieces of batting to find two that could be joined for this quilt.  I made a list of all of the pieces and then noticed 2 that would work.  I butted the edge together and used the 3 step zig zag.  I find that a plain zig zag compresses the join too much and is sometimes visible in the finished quilt.  This stitch keeps the join at the same level as the rest of the batting.  I haven't turned the longarm on yet.  I need to put in a new needle and hope I have better luck getting the eye centered than on the last quilt.  I use a pin inserted in the eye but it is still hard to tell if it in the perfect position.  Darn round top needles.  Why couldn't they put a flat back on these like regular sewing machine needles.

I got all of these sets sewn together while watching the 3 FBI shows on TV.  There are 12 in most of the piles, 16 in one and 8 in one.  There are 17 piles sewn now.

Here are the combinations left to sew.  I changed some of the pairs from the arrangement I showed a few days ago.  There wasn't enough contrast on some of them and I think these will work better.

Top sewn, not pressed...........

I started sewing the 9 patch quilt top around lunch time.  I resumed sewing when 3 NCIS shows came on at 7 p.m.  The shows were a crossover so it was like a 3 hour movie.

I finished sewing the top at 10 p.m. so it was too late to turn on the iron.  The seams are matched pretty well in spite of not having nesting seams most of the way through the stitching.  I will plan the pressing better on the next 9 patch, probably a batik one since I have a whole box of 2" batik strips that were cut many years ago.

We had sunshine for many hours yesterday, after a long spell of gloomy days.  Unfortunately it is going to get cloudy again with only a small chance of sunshine here and there over the next few days.  

Layout on the design wall.................

I pressed the last stack of 9 patches made a couple days ago and brought all of the blocks up to my main floor studio.  The blocks are 4.5" finished so this might finish at 45" x 54".  I think this is the final layout but I'll make that decision today.

Then I went back to sewing the triangle squares of neutral colors.  There are lots more to sew and I haven't decided if this is a Sunday project or if I'll go ahead and sew the rest Tuesday night when there are 3 TV shows to watch.

My favorite pizza place in the next town 4 miles away sells frozen half baked pizzas.  All you have to do is bake them 20 minutes from their frozen state to a delicious meal.

I had already cut it and had eaten a couple piece when I remembered I hadn't taken its baked photo.  Yum!  It is SO good!

 

Playing with neutrals..............

I did some die cutting for a couple quilts, one being these neutrals.  I cut the 3 light colors at the top right.  I sewed one group together into squares.

I had every intention of changing the needle in my longarm and loading a quilt but instead the day got away from me.  I did play with the one group I sewed, a pretty low contrast group.

There are lots of possibilities of what to do with these squares and I have no idea at this point what I am going to do.  Just mindless sewing again.  Maybe today I'll get the longarm running again.